Belle

Every fact as presented by the film is not only false, but deliberately twisted and manufactured to be something else than what little we've got of the story of these people who lived in the England of the 18th century, when England was the center of the globe's African slave trade. This is a fantasy that ignores the historical facts that are the story of Dido Elizabeth Bell - and her cousin Elizabeth, so far as the record kept track of them.

It's a phony story too, about  the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield.  The case he sat on that helped abolition was Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499,  not that of the slave ship  Zong. The manner in which he settled the Zong case, ruled in favor of the insurance company, which excused them from paying compensation for slaves deliberately murdered to get an insurance payout on loss of property.  It did nothing about saying that slavery was wrong, that the chattel was free, or anything like that. What the Lord Chief Justice's private opinion on these matter were are not a matter of record, nor did speak them in public. The film claims that the Zong case advanced aboliton, but it did not -- he actually reversed the lower courts' cases that tried to say killing slaves was illegal:

In reaching these conclusions, Krikler comments that Mansfield ignored the ruling of his predecessor,Matthew Hale, that the killing of innocents in the name of self-preservation was unlawful. This ruling was to prove important a century later in R v Dudley and Stephens, which also concerned the justifiability of acts of murder at sea.[43] Mansfield also did not acknowledge another important legal principle—that no insurance claim can be legal if it arose from an illegal act.[67]

Mansfield ruled on Somerset. over ten years before he ruled on the Zong case. It's because of his ruling on the Somersett case that Dido could be called free in England. She was the daughter of a slave, and English slave law is that the child takes the status of the mother, thus not a free woman. However, the movie never mentions the Somerset case at all, which makes no sense, within the many scenes devoted to discussing the Zong case and that Masefield would be ruling on it.

Dido did not marry a gentleman, not even one so made because her uncle sponsored him to study in the Inns of Court, as the film says.  She married a steward's son. Mansfield gave her 500 pounds.  In the meantime her father portrayed as a true lover of her mother (a woman who was still a slave when she died?), but a philandering sort, who had other slave women and children by them (who were not brought to his uncle to be made free), as well as a couple of wives (who died), who gave him more children who were legitimate.

Dido was not an heiress, but her cousin Elizabeth, portrayed in Belle as a pauper, was one. Twisting the facts out of shape leaves huge plot holes.  For instance, since the Lord Chief Justice and his wife had no children, and his fortune was made by himself, there is no entail -- and his fortune is so great he can live in that mansion and possess more than one carriage, and they love their niece Elizabeth -- so why were he and his wife not giving Elizabeth a fortune?  Not even considered.

They even change the famous painting, that supposedly inspired the movie to be written, to leave out the feather and the turban. Why?

Not to mention the pure Mammy figure, stout in body, head wrapped, being all mammy-like to the young lady mulatta who gives her orders and pouts at her. There's so much in this film that doesn't make any sense in terms of class of the period -- or a coherent story.

In truth this he film is kinda of a mess, and it's a mess because of twisting the facts into what didn't exist.

But nevermind, the dresses are pretty, so are the actresses, and the square piano they play is period correct, along with all the other period detail that has nothing to do with how the characters on screen behave or the story being told.  That's all that matters, right?

The writer and director could have told this story by making it all up instead of pretending to the tell the story of something that happened.  Except then, she'd have had to leave out the Lord Chief Justice, and that would be bad, because ... well, I for one don't know why that would be bad.  It would have been pure historical romance then, and we wouldn't have to feel that the historical Dido Elizabeth Belle had been cheated and disrespected.

It would also have spared me from the rest of my life having to futilely attempt to explain all this to those who will cite this film as the facts of what happened -- and racism and slavery weren't that bad.

While I still futilely convincing people even now that what happened in 12 Years a Slave really did happen, and that Solomon Northup actually existed, and was really kidnapped into slavery, and yes, being a slave was really that bad, and in fact for millions, it was even worse than that.  And there was no actual fairy tale Jane Austen ending of his story.  He suffered so much from PTSD from his kidnapping, sales, what he saw and experienced in slavery, that he descended into drink and lost his family, and died not that long after, alone. All of which is documented.

Decoration Day

The assumption, here, is everyone who thinks about the significance of  Memorial Day knows this day was started by African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina. After WWI Decoration become known as Memorial Day. Despite having started the commemoration, African Americans such as the Hell Fighters were segregated out of the commemoration ceremonies and parades then as well, despite their great heroic sacrificial contributions to the effort. This has remained to be the case most often until, perhaps, the Vietnam War.

For more history of Decoration Day, go here.

From a black newspaper, the New Orleans Semi-Weekly Louisianan dated June 15, 1871. It describes an event that occurred at the then-newly-established Arlington National Cemetery. Like the U.S. Colored Troops who’d been denied a place in the grand victory parade in Washington in May 1865, the black veterans discovered that segregation and exclusion within the military continued even after death:

DECORATION DAY AND HYPOCRISY.

The custom of decorating the graves of soldiers who fell in the late war, seems to be doing more harm to the living than it does to honor the dead. In every Southern State there are not only separate localities where the respective defendants of Unionism and Secession lie buried, but there are different days of observance, a rivalry in the ostentatious parade for floral wealth and variety, and a competition in extravagant eulogy, more calculated to inflame the passions than to soften and purify the affections, which ought to be the result of all funeral rights.

Besides this bad effect among the whites there comes a still more evil influence from the dastardly discriminations made by the professedly union [sic.] people themselves.

Read this extract from the Washington Chronicle:

AT THE COLORED CEMETERY

While services were in progress at the tomb of the “Unknown” Comrade Charles Guthridge, John S. Brent, and Beverly Tucker, of Thomas R. Hawkins Post, No. 14 G.A.R., followed by Greene’s Brass Band, Colonel Perry Carson’s Pioneer Corps of the 17th District, Butler Zouaves, under the command of Charles B. Fisher, and a large number of colored persons proceeded to the cemetery on the colored soldiers to the north of the mansion, and on arriving there they found no stand erected, no orator or speaker selected, not a single flag placed on high, not even a paper flag at the head boards of these loyal but ignored dead, not even a drop of water to quench the thirst of the humble patriots after their toilsome march from the beautifully decorated grand stand above to this barren neglected spot below. At 2 ½ o’clock P.M., no flowers or other articles coming for decorative purposes, messengers were dispatched to the officers of the day for them; they in time returned with a half dozen (perhaps more) rosettes, and a basket of flower leaves. Deep was the indignation and disappointment of the people. A volley of musketry was fired over the graves by Col. Fisher’s company. An indignation meeting was improvised, Col. Fisher acting president. A short but eloquent address was made by George Hatton, who was followed by F. G. Barbadoes, who concluded his remarks by offering the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, that the colored citizens of the District of Columbia hereby respectfully request the proper authorities to remove the remains of all loyal soldiers now interred at the north end of the Arlington cemetery, among paupers and rebels, to the main body of the grounds at the earliest possible moment.

Resolved, that the following named gentlemen are hereby created a committee to proffer our request and to take such further action in the matter as may be deemed necessary to a successful accomplishment of our wishes: Frederick Douglass, John M. Langston, Rev. Dr. Anderson, William J. Wilson, Col. Charles B. Fisher, William Wormley, Perry Carson, Dr. A. T. Augusta, F. G. Barbadoes.

If any event in the whole history of our connection with the late war embodied more features of disgraceful neglect, or exhibited more clearly the necessity of protecting ourselves from insult, than this behavior at Arlington heights, we at least acknowledge ignorance of it.

We say again that no good, but only harm can result from keeping up the recollection of the bitter strife and bloodshed between North and South, and worse still, in furnishing occasion to white Unionists of proving their hypocrisy towards the negro in the very presence of our dead.

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The Source for Accusations of Henry Adams Anti-semitism

Lordessa, was he ever a anti-semite, which makes me feel badly, very badly.  Because he was a great historian.  There simply is nothing in the discipline of history scholarship like his volumes of the administrations of Jefferson and Madison.  There's nothing like his work about the Civil War or about the Haitian Revolution.  There can't be because no one else who has ever worked with these events was alive and / or direct descendant of, who knew these relative in his life time, as well as so many of the other primary players.  He also wrote penetratingly of other significant figures and events in American history, including John Randolph and Alfred Gallatin.

It's the Dreyfus Affair.  It went on for years (1894 - 1906). It was a mobilization of ugliness and hate -- hate of everything -- as great any as we saw in the Civil Rights ere here, though, unlike here, it doesn't appear that anyone was actually killed for believing in the innocence of Dreyfus and the culpability of the French army and government in forging evidence and wrongful conviction.

By then Henry Adams was in the depths of bitterness, anger and resentment.  It seems to have been triggered with the estrangement from his wife, Clover, her breakdown and suicide, as well as the lack of recognition by the public at large and his peers particularly of the startling achievement of his work with Jefferson and Madison.  He turned his back not only on the U.S. but on American history.  He spent most of his time in Europe, particularly in France and immersed himself in the medieval ages.  For him, considering the results of this, it meant the French middle ages.  As you see in that quite stupid book that was the result,  Mont-Saint-Michele and Chartres, he didn't understand the Middle Ages at all, and beyond that created an idealized fantasy of them, in a French version, that wouldn't be out of place in a role playing fantasy game today.

These ideas, along with his personal bitterness, anger, and sense of betrayal, he projected upon poor Dreyfus -- as did all of France project whatever they wished upon him, and by the end, so did the world.

Mr Adams, Mr Adams, oh how I wish you had been a better man.  But as well as their place in society and their brilliance, you inherited some of the bad qualities of your distinguished forebears, and it took over your life.  But they died peacefully and happy.  You died -- deeply disappointed

Television Series, Hieroglyph - Coming Soon!

Hieroglyph features Pharaoh's private investigator -- a thief, plucked from prison. Fox.

My prophesy is this series will be panned by puffers and 'critics' because spelling 'hieroglyph' and pharaoh' will be too much of a pain.  Otoh, t&a + violence quotient in 'exotic' milieu may be just what the doctor ordered.

Doesn't he just look dynastic Egyptian as eff? Or -- Is he Young Merln all grown up? Or -- backwards as Merlin's legend has it? Also why is your name Ambrose?

Why are most of the principals white?

Description plus trailer, here. Is it a spoiler if it is suggested that while watching the trailer watch out for the fangs?

American the Beautiful

Hate, bigotry, ignorance are attractive, elegant and witty.

This is the legacy of slavery in this country, the consequence of which we all are heirs still, today.

Is This Caused by Gender?

The American Slave Coast, focused as it is on slave-breeding and the domestic slave trade, cannot avoid addressing certain matters such as actual birthing.  One of the themes runs something like this: when all women, even the most elite and privileged women, have no rights to their own bodies, no legal standing to refuse sexual advances, predation, abuse and rape from their own husbands -- and even their husband's friends*, have no control over their reproduction, are shamed and blamed if they do not reproduce to the extreme of their reproductive capacity, when obstetrics were brutal when they existed at all, and the consequences are frequent and early death for both woman and infant -- what do you think it was like for the most powerless of all women, an enslaved, fertile woman?  She is certainly not receiving adequate nutrition, doesn't even have a bed frame or floorboards in many cases, is overworked right up to and rapidly after birth.

But we needed to do some fact checking on some statements we've made, such as the enslaved frequently followed the birthing practice of many African cultures, squatting in the later stages of labor and the birth, which also helped expel the placenta-afterbirth more rapidly and completely, while white women did not do that.

Well, now, is that a fact, or is it a supposition merely?  How do you find out?

Due to a computer problem my search privileges in my research library consortium were temporarily revoked.  No access.  El V couldn't find a thing: every search defaulted to present day Africa, African American, American, African birthrates, maternity care, etc.  He couldn't find anything that addressed birthing practices in the pre-Civil War south.  As this is was such an intimate matter, and one that was considered obscene -- no decent woman would be talking about this, much less keeping track and writing about it -- much less a man, who was interested only in the child arriving and living and increasing his wealth.**



When I was able to get back into the research libraries' resources and typed in a string, which I think was -- birthing slaves antebellum south. Voila, though the body of research published in this area is small, there is a group of dedicated historians who have been working to compile the information and stats. One title in particular, is a whole book, published in 2006, and is on the shelves here locally at Bobst.  Now we can confirm the statements as false or fact:  Birthing a Slave: Motherhood and Medicine in the Antebellum South, by Marie Jenkins Schwarz.

El V is a grand champion searcher. But he didn't get this, when I was able to on first try. Is it that he just didn't have the gender intuition of the right string of terms?
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*  For notable example, Thomas Jefferson attempted "to seduce" forcibly, i.e. rape, the wife of one of his closest friends -- full account in Meacham's The Art of Power, an historian who deeply admires TJ.  He tried it on more than once, while his friend  was absent, in the army, and she was alone, even so much so he climbed on top of her while she was sleeping in her bedroom.  She fought him off, was terrified and disgusted to be around him for years before she told her husband, who then wanted to fight TJ in a duel, but TJ managed to placate and get away.  No way was the physically cowardly TJ capable of facing anyone in a duel.  Then, of course, he bred his wife, whom by all evidence he dearly loved, to death.

** Note, how even today right wing white southern males demonstrate nearly every time they open their mouths their complete ignorance of how reproduction, birth and all their associated systems work, as well as maintaining contemptibly stupid convictions of how these matter do operate.

The Most Pleasurable Part of the Publication Process

The very best part of the publication process (besides seeing that actual book as a book!) is writing the acknowledgments.  We're working on them this week.